With her youthful charm and lovely voice, she stands in front of a sold out crowd at the Avalon in Hollywood, lightly strumming her acoustic guitar and singing a song about California; although California is a metaphor for a lot of things. For such a young soul, she has a lot on her mind. Blending both the innocence and intelligence of Joni Mitchell, Arielle brings to the music world something that has gotten lost amongst the bright lights and theatricality of today’s modern pop world – honesty, simply told by a voice and a guitar. She can sit and enchant one moment, then stand and inspire the next. And people will stop and listen. It happened last November in front of an audience primed to see Slash, Steve Stevens and Corey Taylor rock out as part of Kings Of Chaos. And it happened in Taiji, Japan, when she sang on a beach at the Cove where dolphins are slaughtered.
Raised in northern California, she was part of several children’s choirs before moving to LA to attend the Musicians Institute. Inspired by Queen and The Beatles and the musical atmosphere of southern California, she developed her winsome style, honed her voice and guitar playing, and with a little help from former Extreme and current Rihanna guitar player Nuno Bettencourt, she is now ready to spread her wings and fly.
With a debut EP being prepped for an April release, Arielle is already gaining momentum from her recent single and video, “California.” About to set out on a radio station promotional tour, Arielle spent an afternoon last week talking with me about her music, her inspirations, her aspirations and how one voice can make the world a better place in more ways than one.
You have some new music coming out in April. What can you tell us about that?
Yeah, the EP is coming out in April and it’s really exciting because we took the songs I had written, started working them up with my band and really changed the songs in a cool way. We’re recording a lot of it live then doing some of the overdubs. To me, it’s modern but yet very fashioned in the way the classics were done. So it’s live energy and captures a lot of the live performance but also tweaked up a bit to sound nice. We sifted through a lot of songs and I’d say there’s lot of guitar playing and we’ve got one track on there that is a cover and there’s a lot of special guests that are on it. So yeah, lots of guitar, lots of catchy melodies and emotions.
You said you had to sift through your songs. How many songs did you have?
Oh man, I don’t know, maybe twenty. And we’re still kind of sifting through and getting the final decision based on me still writing and growing. It’s so funny, even since we recorded a bunch of the songs in October, I’ve changed a lot and my songwriting has gotten better and my voice has gotten better. So I’m continually tweaking and changing and finding songs that work best.
How did you go about the process of what to keep and what not to keep? Was it all feel?
Yeah, yeah, it is, cause a lot of the songs are great and some of them are catchier than others but what we’ve come to find is it’s not necessarily about having the greatest written songs as opposed to how well they blend in together. We’ve got one song, “This Is The End,” and another, “Careful,” so how do those blend in with “California” and how do those blend in together. There’s a song in there I have called “The Impossible.” I think we might wait for it to be on the album, not because it’s not great but it just doesn’t fit in as well. So really, how does it feel itself but more importantly, how does it feel with the rest of them and do they showcase enough who I am to be proud of as a first body of work.
How many songs do you think you’re going to have on the EP?
Four, possibly five, so it’s really a refinement of what we want to show.
When will we get a full-bodied ten-to-thirteen song album?
Oh man, I’m hoping as soon as possible but it really depends on how well the EP plays out and how well “California” plays out. If it does well, we’ll wait a little bit longer, I think, is what the plan is. So it could be a couple of months, three to four months after the EP comes out, so probably the summer. But I’m just basing it off of assuming it goes well.
Your first single, “California,” has some pretty serious lyrics.
I’m glad you noticed that. It’s funny because it has the initial feel of happy and the video really captures a beautiful story of just traveling and it seems to be pretty carefree. But the truth is, when we wrote it, it was really coming from a kind of melancholy place of moving here, like so many people come in pursuit of a dream, and in my case music, coming to California, coming to LA, to make that happen for myself. The things that happened along the way, I’d say the biggest was really losing myself in the process and how miserable that was and how it destroyed me because I gave in; losing myself in order to find that everything that I was ending up being, what I needed to be and what ended up working. And in the end, I really wanted to capture that. Telling a story more than it is in the moment of it feels better. It’s like the turnaround. Here I am now and I’m here because I had to lose myself. And I think it’s important to hear that because I like to share that part, the struggle of it, and not just with music but what it takes and the unknown kind of scary element of pursuing anything, especially if it’s really big.
How did you lose yourself?
How did I NOT lose myself is the question. I mean, certain elements of who I am did not go away. I didn’t lose myself that far. I wasn’t into drugs or anything but what I did do was more of a self-deprecating thing. I dressed a certain way, I hid the guitar; everything that made me unique and special, I hid. And I hid partially because people pulled me and I tried to fit in with the whole weight thing, starving myself, trying to do a certain type of music that wasn’t me. Those kinds of things that were very uncomfortable and small but they added up. It wasn’t who I was as a person. It was really just constantly compromising my music and that eventually, in a place where I should be happy and sunny all the time, I was miserable. I wasn’t really making myself better. I was fitting into everybody else.
So how did you turn it around?
Well, I’ve been really blessed and what happened was, the label and I, we had a video for an entirely other song called “Pendulum” and this song we made a music video for. So for the music video, I was in high heels, I had dancers. I had it all. Everything. I had full choreography and the video looked beautiful. It was very well done, nice quality, but the label said to me, “Look, this just isn’t right. It’s beautiful looking but it’s not believable.” And they were actually the ones to say it, because again, the whole thing with the label and the pressures is real but they said, “We’re going to give you one more chance and obviously what we want isn’t working. It’s not working,” cause I came in there with all these ideas and this pep and this spark and I was excited and confident and I ended up coming out of it being really insecure. “Alright, write a song. You got a month. It’s going to be done your way.” So what happened was, we went in the studio two weeks, “California” was written and for the music video they said, “Alright, we’re going to give you money and you’re going to go buy your own clothes and you’re going to tell us how you want your hair and you’re going to do all this stuff.” So really, all this good stuff started happening after they gave me the power and I embraced it, cause I’m not going to blame anybody for my own lack of confidence and insecurity in myself. There was pressure on me, for sure, but things turned around when I became myself. And now, they’re so confident in that, “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it.” They can’t tell me what to do because it’s just me being me and it’s working.
And that must feel really good because too many people want to be somebody else. But in the arts, it’s the ones that are being themselves rather than following someone else that works.
It’s true and sometimes you don’t even notice you’re doing it. I didn’t. Like, on one thing I’ll compromise. Another thing, I’ll compromise. But those things add up and before you know it, you’re somebody else and you didn’t even realize it. Kind of scary but I had to go through it and I am happy to share it and I’m so glad that the song is about that, because it’s a real story and I’m sure that’s what people connect with so much; especially here in LA. It’s like, “That’s my story.”
Do you think that Los Angeles and Hollywood are still like the Holy Grail and Mecca for musicians? That even with Nashville and New York, they still feel like LA is the place to go?
I think they still do. People who don’t live in LA and don’t really know the business, gravitate to LA. Definitely, that still happens if they don’t know the business. If they do, I tend to find people move to New York or Nashville, depending on what style they do. Do they need to be in LA? No. Is it convenient? Incredibly. I have a couple of friends that fly in and out of here and they do have at least a place to stay when they are here. But then I know the kind of wanderer/gypsy type that come in and out and they have a little bit more of a struggle to build consistent relationships because they are not always where they need to be, which I find is here, New York or Nashville, like you said. But you can do it online but it’s a lot harder, I would say. And it’s much different now than when I got signed three years ago. It’s changed significantly.
You actually grew up in California but not in LA.
Yeah, I wasn’t born in California but I did grow up here, in Northern California. I moved around a lot. I was not a military brat or anything. I just had parents that liked to move (laughs). We were all around the San Mateo area, which is a little bit south of San Francisco. Then I came down to LA when I was just about seventeen.
Was that a culture shock to you?
Oh yeah, definitely, but I think I was so ready for it at that point though. I spent a lot of time in San Francisco, which is a big city, but not as big as this. It wasn’t how I expected it in my head and I was pretty much in a safe bubble going to Musicians Institute in Hollywood that it didn’t seem as scary because at least I had somewhere I knew and could go and I didn’t really leave that place. So I wouldn’t say it was a culture shock. When I moved to London, that was a culture shock. But LA, I was really, really ready.
In regards to your songwriting, have you always been this aware of your feelings and the world and being able to express that from such a young age?
Yes. I would say it was the only way for a long time that I knew how and continues to be the best way. I figured out other ways to express myself but when I was younger I didn’t really talk much. But I would play music and that’s how I learned to explain myself and say how I felt.
How did creating music start for you?
I would say melodies that I would hear in my head, and poetry. I did a lot of poetry. I took a lot of classes, a lot of summer camps. I was involved in a lot of poetry competitions and won a lot of them. Really, I always found such an interest in words and vocabulary and languages and the rhythm and structure of poems and rhyming schemes. That’s been a big passion of mine. Then kind of combining it with melodies, which have always been in my head since I was very young and didn’t know what to do with.
Do you prefer to write about your feelings, things that are close to you, rather than making up a story?
(laughs) Always. I used to make up stories all the time because it’s a lot less scary. Making up stories and then somebody listens to it, you’re not really vulnerable. I have a song called “This Is The End.” It’s a very sensitive song and a time where I was very sad and going through some health stuff and it’s very vulnerable. When people hear that, I’m leaving myself very open and if they judge it it’s not like, oh, they’re just judging some story made up. That’s me in there at a very vulnerable state. And even when I’m writing for other people, if they have something I can’t really relate to, I find it in myself to make it real because I think a lot of stuff we hear on the radio is great sounding and great voices and it’s a great structure of a song and nice, but it doesn’t really feel like anything. They just sound nice and have a great beat. But the story is, to me, why I write music in the first place. That’s how I express myself and how I’m really finding I connect to a lot of other people who have felt the same way but don’t have the gift to express it in such a way.
You were in children’s choirs when you were young but when was the first time that you got up on a stage and performed your own music?
When I was thirteen. My own music, away from choir, was when I was thirteen. My first show ever, at least with the guitar, was opening up for Night Ranger and Sammy Hagar at a benefit concert that they did up in northern California. It was with a band that I had created for this show. I forget what we were called. Kids At Risk or something. I think that was it, Kids At Risk (laughs). And we had this song, and the melody was silly, but yeah, I had a little guitar solo and that was the first time.
Were you doing electric guitar?
I was on electric guitar, yeah
How did you get on a ticket like that?
It was a benefit concert in, I think, 2003 or 2004, with Sammy Hagar. I got on that because the guy who was running it, Buzzy Martin, he brought music to San Quentin, so he was a really big advocate of music. So he did this benefit for a lot of the kids who were in juvenile halls and stuff that he brings music to, and instruments and things. So I had known him through other people locally and he invited me to play there and he built the band of some other people. And I got to perform one song. My first gig and I think there were four thousand people there.
Were you nervous?
Oh yeah (laughs). Very much. But I loved it. I loved it so much. I remember everybody afterwards were like flipping out and I was like, “Yeah, that was so cool!”
Now that you’ve been doing this for a while, what do you think is the hardest thing about performing live?
Oh man, the hardest thing about performing live for me is my gear. It’s the one thing for me that is the most unpredictable. That might sound silly, and I think I’m sure as I get a little bit better, get the right people helping me and guitar techs and stuff, that’s great, it’s fine. I have a nice pedal board and nice stuff that make me sound good, at least the way I want it. I’m a big tone-head. So yeah, I’ll be playing and all of a sudden it’ll turn off and I’ll be like, oh no, but I can’t stop singing so I just have to hope that the guitar tech will cover it or that my gear will work. So I’d say that is the scariest thing live. I love being up there and sharing. I work really hard and practice everything else that I feel more confident in but you know, the silly things you can’t control I get nervous about. But I think that’s just me being a perfectionist.
There was a show I did a couple weeks ago and it’s embarrassing (laughs) because here I am singing and then I can’t hear myself and when you can’t hear yourself, you don’t know if you’re in the right key. You just kind of rely on muscle memory for your throat. You’re like, I think this is where I sing it normally, but then when I start hearing myself again I realize I’m in the wrong key. It’s embarrassing. Like, I would never have done that if I would have heard myself.
When you went into the studio to do the EP, was that the first time you had been in one?
No, thankfully. I’d done a lot of studio work. In a choir, I started being in a studio a lot recording around there so I got used to studios there but it was very much a different experience though. And I had a friend up in northern California that recorded a bunch of my solo stuff so he taught me a lot about playing with a click and where you stand if you’re singing for the microphone and about gear. It’s an art of it’s own, really, being a studio musician. I’ve been able to work with a lot of other producers at Musicians Institute in Hollywood. They did a lot of courses about being a studio session player.
So you were really comfortable.
Oh yeah, I love it. I love a really nice studio. It’s fun. And I record myself too.
You said you’re still working on some of the songs for your EP but what song turned completely into a different version than the original once you started working on it there?
All of them (laughs) except “California.” They were all recorded and then we rerecorded them again after working with the band. But we do have a cover on there and that was pretty unexpected because we were doing it live and as we were doing it live, it was like, this would be an incredible song to go on the EP. I wouldn’t normally do a cover song on an EP but it just sounded so great and I thought it could be something really special. It’s super-riffy and there’s like four part harmonies so it’s got this great energy.
What is the most unique thing that inspired you to write a song?
I’m not sure if this is entirely unique but I kind of call myself emotionally reckless (laughs) because I really enjoy, no, let’s not say enjoy – I embrace painful situations. I know I’m not the only one but deep pain inspires me to no end. But also deep anything – love, excitement – but I would say deep pain; and I don’t necessarily write about painful things but it tends to be the most resourceful energy for me and it converts itself into good. I don’t want people to listen to the music, myself included, and feel worse than before they started listening. And that can come from anything. A couple of weeks ago somebody was smoking in front of me and usually I’m kind of disgusted by that, but this time it reminded me of a friend that smoked that I really missed. So I wrote this song about a cigarette and the fact that that cigarette reminded me of him and it felt like this person was there. I can be inspired by anything but I do notice I embrace painful situations.
How did you discover music, because your family was not a musical family, they are doctors.
My dad listened to opera and Doo Wop. I didn’t really connect to that at all. Doo Wop was okay, I thought, but I really became passionate through a babysitter I had named Daniel. He showed me Queen and he showed me lots of rock music and we used to sing harmonies together and it really allowed me to develop a taste for, at least, very classic rock like Beatles. And as I got older, I started finding music myself – Queen when I was six and then I kind of stuck on the old sixties and maybe early Led Zeppelin, if that was there, and as I got older I started getting into the heavy metal, Black Sabbath stuff. My tastes got refined as I got older, I noticed. It was really a self-exploration.
What was the song or album that literally changed your life?
“Hammer To Fall” by Queen. It was the first song that I saw Queen play on the DVD, I guess it was a video at the time, Queen: Live At Wembley. They almost always start with “Hammer To Fall.” Then I looked at Brian May and thought, wow, what is that? And it was that song that every time I think of Queen, I think of that because it was such a powerful experience for me to see that and immediately know that was what I was supposed to do. That was the one song that changed everything.
Who was the first real rock star you ever met?
Pavarotti (laughs). Does he count? Like I said, my dad was very passionate about opera and the Three Tenors and we had seen them. I was very young, but I partially remember this though. He was there and I don’t remember how we got back there but we were backstage and he was doing some signings and I got to meet him. I think he thought I was a boy (laughs).
Since February was a big Beatles anniversary month, as a songwriter, what do you think was their greatest moment in terms of lyrics?
You know, you could go obscure but my favorite is the super simple stuff that you don’t have to think about. There’s clever and I like clever; but I like stuff that is just so simple I wish that I wrote it, and that would be their song “I Will.” So simple. And because it’s so simple it’s just sweet and short and you can’t really get lost in translation there. It’s just a sweet love song. I’d say that’s my favorite.
You’ve said that Nuno Bettencourt was a big help to you. How did you meet him?
Well, I met him through a friend, Carl Restivo. He’s a producer and he also played with Rihanna as a guitar player, with Nuno at one point, and he’s a great guy. I met him through a dance choreographer actually, which is very funny how things always work out that way unexpectedly. My choreographer was like, “Hey, I got this producer friend, you got to meet him,” so I said ok. Met him and we worked on some songs and one night I was working with Carl and Nuno walked in. He’d just gotten off tour for a couple days and I started playing him a couple songs that I was working on and he was like, “Wow, this is incredible. I really want to be a part of your project somehow. Here’s what I want to do: I want to make a video of your song and your dancing stuff and then I want to shop it around to labels.” And he was exactly the person I needed at the right time, who I had been waiting for, that one piece that makes the bridge from me just being an artist to signed and having backing support. So he brought me to all sorts of different managers, including Rihanna’s manager. But he really, and Carl included, I mean, he edited this video, he paid for everything, he made all the connections, and it was him that got me signed and got me where I am today. I mean, I worked hard but he was the bridge.
He was like your rock & roll godfather
(laughs) He is, exactly. That is exactly what he is and he’s great. I mean, this is a once in a lifetime thing. Just really fortunate and so cool that it’s him.
I first saw you in LA last year for the Dolphin Project concert. How did you get involved with them?
When I was ten, I read the book, Behind The Dolphin Smile by Ric O’Barry and it changed my life. I was the girl who was like, “I want to swim with the dolphins, I’m going to be a dolphin trainer and I’m going to …” just like so many kids who just want to be around these amazing animals. And I read this book and I’d always go to the library and find dolphin books and whale books and read them and this was something I wasn’t expecting. He talks about what it was like training the dolphins and how he eventually found out how sad they were. A couple years after that, I ended up finding somebody from the Dolphin Project [http://dolphinproject.org/] at this animal activist convention that was going on here in LA and maybe a month later I get a call from Ric O’Barry himself and I go, “Hey, I’m in LA, let’s meet up.” He is like my biggest hero. I’ve been doing this just as long as I’ve been playing guitar and ever since then we just connected and he’s become kind of like a father figure to me. And we had this idea about this concert about three years ago and the funniest thing was Matt Sorum actually came to the Dolphin Project and me; he came to me, not even knowing I was a musician, and also we come to find we have the same manager, which is funny how that works, so we connected there as activists before even really musicians. But I’ve been to the Cove.
How sad was it when you were there?
It was probably the worst thing I’ve ever seen because, well, I’m obviously not going to go into details, but just the initial feeling, just watching and observing, and watching the boats going in their line formation and the dolphins coming in and you’re just praying, “Turn around, do something, don’t go in that direction.” But you can’t do anything. It’s just helplessness all around. You go down and you see them and they net them in and just see them freaking out and you can’t do anything. You just cry. And then the police are there and some people are laughing at you because they don’t see it the way you do and it’s very sad. And knowing that you’re a witness for these animals that are so intelligent. I do not think we are more intelligent than a dolphin, who uses half of their brainpower just while they’re sleeping. I mean, humans don’t use half of their brainpower fully conscious.
I went and played some music on the beach on the first day, September 01, of the slaughter season and people were yelling. But I noticed how the music was changing people and actually made them listen and put people in a circle to listen and it just needs some more awareness and more people understanding what’s going on. That part can grow as we grow on the planet with our consciousness and stuff. I really think a lot of it is going to come from people who have a very strong voice, such as people like Matt and other celebrities and people just individually realizing that we impact the world a lot more than we know, individually. It’s something I am very passionate about.
What do you have coming up for the next couple of months?
“California,” my single, comes out onto radio March 17. During that time, which is pretty soon here, there’s going to be a radio tour, so I’ll be going all around the US promoting “California” and playing at different radio stations. In the meantime, I’ve got a gig actually regarding the Dolphin Project and orcas. I’m playing with Joan Jett and Heart on April 22, which is Earth Day, in Seattle and we are doing that to raise awareness of orcas. We’re not really trying to go down the Blackfish direction, we’re not naming names, but it’s for awareness of them being free and it’s going to be a really good cause. Orcas are dolphins, they’re just the largest species and it’s all raising awareness for that so that’s going to be really exciting. And the EP comes out in late April. And I guess it just depends on how well the song does. But we’ll be promoting the heck out of it and playing around town getting my band up and getting my live chops up again and promoting, I guess.
Last Question: When you first decided that you wanted to be a professional musician, what was the best piece of advice someone gave you?
Jack Joseph Puig is an incredible engineer/mixer/producer, and I met him and he told me it’s not about the guitar. That affected me very deeply and I was offended, because what do you mean it’s not about the guitar? What is it about? “It’s about your voice and it’s about the song.” And that to me has been priceless information because that’s what people relate to, that’s what gives it all meaning: the song and what that is saying, and the guitar is a bridge to support that. If it weren’t for him, I would have easily gotten caught up in the guitar shredding thing, which there’s nothing wrong with that, but that wasn’t me. And really embracing being a songwriter and capturing those emotions into a song and those stories and having the guitar supporting that as opposed to the other way around. That was the information I got. Make it be about the song and the voice. That was hard for my ego to hear but true.
Live photographs by Leslie Michele Derrough
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